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fr't^!'^5«'^MHK^v*ir:-7^^f<^***w»'^  '^-' 


Muhlon 
Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of 

Krupps 


■  --.J^'-oK*-  •«^; 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 
A.  RUSSELL  BUCHANAN 


REVELATIONS  BY  AN 

EX-DIRECTOR  OF 

KRUPP'S 


Dr.  Muhlon^s  Memorandum 

and  his  letter  to 
Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


rice.  Five  Cents 


REVELATIONS  BY 

AN  EX-DIRECTOR 

OF  KRUPP'S 


Dr.  MiihlorCs  Memorandum 

and  his  letter  to 
Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


T^ 


INTRODUCTION 

FOR  nearly  four  years  the  world  has  been  waiting 
for  the  further  information  which  we  knew 
would  eventually  be  forthcoming  as  to  the  details 
of  the  conspiracy  by  which  the  present  war  was  en- 
gineered. Nobody  who  had  read  carefully  the  pub- 
lished diplomatic  correspondence  could  have  any 
doubt  as  to  the  essential  truth,  but  the  con  ^usive 
evidence  was  still  wanting.  What  had  happened 
during  the  month  which  intervened  between  the 
murder  of  the  Archduke  and  the  presentation  of 
the  Austrian  Note  to  Serbia?  On  this,  which  is  far 
more  critical  than  the  events  of  the  twelve  days 
themselves,  the  German  Government  have  always 
preserved  a  stony  silence. 

At  last  the  veil  is  being  lifted.  The  revelations 
which  are  here  printed  come  from  a  man  who  had 
every  opportunity  to  know  the  truth.  Herr  Miih- 
lon,  who  at  first  apparently  had  some  connection 
with  the  German  Foreign  Office,  subsequently  be- 
came one  of  the  directors  of  Krupp's,  the  great  Ger- 
man armament  firm  at  Essen,  and  was  employed  by 
them  on  important  business  in  connection  with 
Morocco  shortly  before  the  affair  of  Agadir. 

He  was  evidently  most  interested  in  the  com- 
mercial side  of  the  business  and  was  thereby  brought 
into  close  communication  with  the  Deutsche  Bank, 
which  has  played  so  large  a  part  in  financing  Ger- 


vi  Introduction 

man  enterprise  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  was  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  his  business  that  he  had  the 
very  Important  conversation  with  Herr  Helfferlch, 
who  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Deutsche  Bank,  and  afterwards  became  Imperial 
Minister  of  Finance. 

The  revelation  as  to  the  perfidy  of  the  German 
Government  seems  from  the  first  to  have  made  a 
profound  impression  on  Herr  Miihlon's  mind.  It 
would  seem  that  soon  afterwards  he  resigned  his 
post  as  director  of  Krupp's,  but  continued  to  be  em- 
ployed by  the  Foreign  Office  in  connection  with 
Rumanian  affairs  at  a  time  when  Rumania  was  not 
yet  a  belligerent  Power. 

It  was  apparently  In  19 17  that  he  finally  deter- 
mined to  give  up  all  employment  which  would  make 
him  an  accomplice  of  the  German  Government;  he 
then  left  the  country  and  took  up  his  residence  in 
Switzerland. 

The  documents  here  reproduced  are  destined  to 
be  among  the  prime  authorities  as  to  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  war. 

It  is  important  to  notice  that  no  full  contradic- 
tion or  refutation  of  his  statements  has  been  forth- 
coming from  the  German  side.  All  that  the  Im- 
perial VIce-Chancellor,  speaking  for  the  Government, 
has  been  able  to  do  Is  to  Inform  us  that  Herr  Miih- 
lon  is  "neurasthenic,"  In  the  same  way  as  they  now 
tell  us  that  Prince  LIchnowsky  is  mentally  affected. 
As  a  German  paper  Itself  has  pointed  out,  what  is 
of  Importance  Is  not  Herr  Miihlon  himself,  but  the 
statements  that  he  has  made. 


REVELATIONS   BY  AN 
EX-DIRECTOR  OF   KRUPP'S 


I 


THE  GERMAN  GOVERNMENT'S  RESPONSIBILITY 
FOR  THE  WAR 

'A  Memorandum  by  Dr.  Miihlon  * 

IN  the  middle  of  July,  19 14,  as  on  many  other 
occasions,  I  had  a  conversation  with  Dr.  Helffer- 
ich,  who  was  at  that  time  the  Director  of  the 
Deutsche  Bank  in  Berlin  and  is  now  the  official  rep- 
resentative of  the  Imperial  Chancellor.  There  were 
certain  big  transactions  (in  Bulgaria  and  Turkey) 
in  which  the  firm  of  Krupp  took  an  active  interest 
for  business  reasons  (supplying  war  materials),  and 
the  Deutsche  Bank  had  adopted  a  negative  attitude 
in  the  matter.  In  justification  of  the  bank's  atti- 
tude, Dr.  Helfferich  gave  me  several  reasons,  and 
concluded  with  the  following: 

"The  political  situation  has  become  very  threat- 
ening. In  any  case  the  Deutsche  Bank  must  wait 
before  committing  itself  further  in  foreign  coun- 
tries. The  Austrians  have  been  with  the  Kaiser 
during  the  last  few  days.  In  eight  days'  time  Vi- 
enna will  deliver  a  very  sharply-worded  Ultimatum 

•First  published   in   the   Berliner   Tageblatt,   March  21,    1918. 

I 


2     Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's 

to  Serbia.  The  Ultimatum,  which  will  have  a  quite 
short  time-limit,  will  contain  demands  of  the  follow- 
ing nature:  Punishment  of  a  number  of  officers, 
dissolution  of  political  associations,  criminal  Inves- 
tigations In  Serbia  with  the  co-operation  of  officials 
of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  In  fact,  immediate  satis- 
faction will  be  demanded  on  a  number  of  definite 
issues,  failing  which  Austria-Hungary  will  declare 
war  on  Serbia." 

Dr.  Helfferlch  added  that  the  Kaiser  had  ex- 
pressed his  decided  approval  of  this  Austro-Hun- 
garian  move.  The  Kaiser  had  said  that  he  re- 
garded a  conflict  with  Serbia  as  a  domestic  affair 
concerning  Austria-Hungary  and  Serbia  alone,  and 
that  he  would  not  allow  any  other  state  to  inter- 
fere; that  if  Russia  mobilised,  he  would  mobilise 
too;  that  mobilisation  In  his  case  meant  immediate 
war;  and  that  this  time  there  should  be  no  waver- 
ing. The  Austrians,  according  to  Dr.  Helfferlch, 
were  delighted  at  the  Kaiser's  determined  attitude. 

Thereupon  I  remarked  to  Dr.  Helfferlch  that, 
even  before  his  disquieting  communication,  I  had 
been  very  much  afraid  that  a  world-war  was  com- 
ing, and  that  my  fears  were  now  converted  into  ab- 
solute certainty.  He  replied  that  "things  certainly 
looked  like  war,  but  that  perhaps  France  and  Rus- 
^ia  would  after  all  reconsider  their  attitude  in  the 
matter.  The  Serbs  decidedly  deserved  a  lasting 
lesson." 

This  was  the  first  communication  I  received  with 
regard  to  the  Kaiser's  conversations  with  our  allies. 
I  knew  that  Dr.  Helfferlch  stood  in  particularly  con- 
fidential relations  to  those  highly-placed  persons  who 
were  bound  to  be  initiated  In  the  matter,  and  that 


Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's     3 

his  communication  was  therefore  reliable.  On  re- 
turning from  Berlin,  I  informed  Herr  Krupp  von 
Bohlen  und  Halbach,  of  whose  Board  of  Directors 
at  Essen  I  was  then  a  member.  Dr.  Helfferich,  I 
may  remark,  had  expressly  authorised  me  to  do  so. 
(It  was  intended  at  that  time  to  make  him  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council  of  Supervision  of  Krupp's  firm.) 

Von  Bohlen  seemed  greatly  surprised  that  Dr. 
Helfferich  should  possess  such  information,  com- 
plained that  "after  all,  these  Government  people 
can  never  keep  their  mouths  quite  shut,"  and  then 
made  a  statement  to  the  following  effect: 

"He  had  himself  been  with  the  Kaiser  during  the 
last  few  days.  The  Kaiser  had  spoken  to  him  too 
about  his  conversation  with  the  Austrians  and  its 
result,  but  had  so  emphasised  the  secrecy  of  the  mat- 
ter, that  he  [von  Bohlen]  would  not  have  ventured 
to  tell  even  his  own  Board  of  Directors.  But,  as 
I  already  knew  about  it,  he  could  tell  me  that 
Helfferich's  statements  were  correct.  Indeed,  Helf- 
ferich appeared  to  know  more  details  than  he  (Boh- 
len) himself.  The  position  was,  in  fact,  very  crit- 
ical. The  Kaiser  had  told  him  he  would  declare 
war  at  once  if  Russia  mobilised.  This  time  people 
would  see  that  he  would  not  change  his  mind.  The 
Kaiser's  emphatic  and  repeated  asseveration  that 
this  time  nobody  would  be  able  to  reproach  him  with 
irresolution  had  produced  an  almost  comic  effect." 

Vienna's  Ultimatum  to  Serbia  made  its  appear- 
ance on  the  very  day  which  Helfferich  had  pre- 
dicted to  me.  I  was  again  in  Berlin  at  the  time,  and 
said  frankly  to  Helfferich  that  I  found  the  Ulti- 
matum, in  form  and  in  content,  simply  monstrous. 
Dr.  Helfferich,  however,  expressed  the  opinion  that 


4    Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's 

this  was  only  the  effect  produced  by  the  German 
translation.  He  said  he  had  seen  the  Ultimatum 
in  French,  and  one  could  not  regard  it  as  at  all 
overdone  in  its  French  version.  On  the  same  oc- 
casion Helfferich  also  told  me  that  the  Kaiser's 
Scandinavian  cruise  was  only  a  blind;  that  he  had 
not  arranged  it  on  the  customary  scale,  but  was  keep- 
ing in  constant  communication  [with  Germany^  and 
near  enough  to  be  reached  at  any  moment.  All  one 
could  do  now  was  to  wait  and  see  what  happened. 
One  must  hope  that  the  Austrians^ — who  of  course 
did  not  expect  the  Ultimatum  to  be  accepted — would 
act  quickly,  before  the  other  Powers  had  time  to 
interfere.  The  Deutsche  Bank  had  already  made 
its  preparations,  so  that  it  was  ready  for  all  even- 
tualities. Thus,  e.ff.,  it  was  keeping  all  gold  as  it 
was  paid  in,  and  not  returning  it  to  circulation. 
That  could  be  done  without  exciting  any  attention 
whatever,  and  considerable  sums  were  thus  accumu- 
lating day  by  day, 

Very  soon  after  the  Viennese  Ultimatum  to  Serbia 
the  German  Government  issued  an  announcement  to 
the  effect  that  Austria-Hungary  had  acted  on  its  own 
account  without  Germany's  foreknowledge.  If  one 
endeavoured  to  reconcile  this  announcement  with  the 
events  which  I  have  described  above,  the  only  pos- 
sible solution  was  that  the  Kaiser  had  already  com- 
mitted himself,  without  allowing  his  Government  any 
hand  in  the  matter;  and  that  the  German  repre- 
sentatives had  not  attempted,  in  their  conversations 
with  the  Austrians,  to  draft  an  agreed  text  of  the 
Ultimatum. 

For  the  contents  of  the  Ultimatum,  as  I  have 
shown   above,    were   known   with   considerable   ac- 


Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's    5 

curacy  in  Germany.  Herr  Krupp  von  Bohlen,  with 
whom  I  discussed  this  German  official  announce- 
ment— which,  in  effect  at  any  rate,  was  a  lie — dis- 
approved of  it  as  much  as  I  did,  because  Germany 
ought  never  to  have  given  carte  blanche  on  such  a 
momentous  issue  to  a  state  like  Austria;  and  because 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  leading  statesmen  to  demand, 
both  of  the  Kaiser  and  of  our  allies,  that  the  Aus- 
trian claims  and  their  Ultimatum  to  Serbia  should 
be  discussed  and  settled  In  the  minutest  details,  and 
that  the  exact  programme  of  the  subsequent  pro- 
cedure should  be  fixed  at  the  same  time. 

"Our  leading  statesmen,"  he  argued,  *'had  no 
right,  whatever  view  they  might  take  of  the  mat- 
ter, to  surrender  themselves  to  the  Austrians  with- 
out reserve,  or  to  expose  themselves  to  eventuali- 
ties which  they  had  not  already  taken  into  account. 
In  pledging  ourselves  to  the  Austrians  we  ought  to 
have  attached  appropriate  conditions."  In  short, 
Herr  von  Bohlen  considered  that  the  German  denial 
of  foreknowledge,  if  there  was  any  trace  of  truth 
In  it,  sinned  against  the  elementary  rules  of  the  art 
of  political  diplomacy;  and  he  led  me  to  expect  that 
he  would  speak  In  this  sense  to  Herr  von  Jagow  (at 
that  time  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs), 
who  was  one  of  his  particular  friends. 

After  he  had  spoken  to  Herr  von  Jagow  he  gave 
me  the  following  account  of  the  Interview:  Herr  von 
Jagow  persisted  in  assuring  him  that  he  had  taken 
no  part  in  composing  the  text  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Ultimatum,  and  that  Germany  had  never 
even  asked  to  collaborate.  To  Herr  von  Bohlen's 
objection  that  this  was  really  inconceivable,  Herr 
von  Jagow  had  answered  that  of  course  he  himself. 


6    Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's 

as  a  diplomat,  had  thought  of  making  a  demand 
of  the  kind,  but  that,  by  the  time  he  was  informed 
of'  the  matter  and  had  been  called  in,  the  Kaiser 
was  so  deeply  committed  that  it  was  already  too 
late  to  take  any  steps  consistent  with  diplomatic 
usage,  and  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  done. 
The  situation  had  been  such  that  it  was  impossible 
any  longer  to  propose  any  reservations  and  condi- 
tions. Moreover  he,  Jagow,  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  would  be  one  advantage  in  the 
omission,  viz.,  that  a  good  effect  would  be  produced 
in  Petrograd  and  Paris  by  the  announcement,  which 
Germany  would  be  able  to  make,  that  we  had  not 
collaborated  in  the  Viennese  Ultimatum. 


II 

GERMANY'S  GUILT 

A  Letter  sent  by  Dr.  Miihlon  to  Herr  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  on  May  7,  191 7* 

Your  Excellency, 

HOWEVER  numerous  and  crass  the  errors  and 
faults  committed  by  Germany  since  the  war 
began,  I  have  none  the  less  long  persisted  in  the 
belief  that  our  leaders  would  eventually  show  them- 
selves possessed  of  a  belated  foresight.  It  was  in 
this  hope  that  I  put  myself  to  a  certain  extent  at 
your  service  to  collaborate  with  you  in  Roumania, 
and  that  I  informed  you  I  was  ready  to  help  you 
in  the  country  in  which  I  am  living  at  present  (Swit- 
zerland), if  our  aim  was  to  be  the  bringing  together 
of  the  parlies  at  war.  That  I  was  and  still  am  op- 
posed to  any  work  other  than  that  of  reconciliation 
and  restoration  I  proved,  shortly  after  hostilities 
opened,  by  resigning  once  and  for  all  from  the  direc- 
torate of  Krupp's  works. 

But  since  the  first  days  of  19 17  I  have  abandoned 
all  hope  as  regards  the  present  leaders  of  Germany. 
Our  offer  of  peace  with  no  indication  of  our  war 
aims,  the  unrestricted  submarine  war,  the  deporta- 
tions from  Belgium,  the  systematic  destruction  in 
France,  the  torpedoing    of    English    hospital  ships 

♦Translated    from    the    French    version    given    In    L'Humaniie, 
March  31,  191S. 

7 


8    Revelations  by  an  Ex-Director  of  Krupp's 

have  so  discredited  the  governors  of  the  [German] 
Empire,  that  I  am  profoundly  convinced  that  they 
are  for  ever  disqualified  for  the  task  of  elaborat- 
ing and  concluding  a  just  and  sincere  international 
agreement.  They  may  change  their  personal  views, 
but  they  cannot  remain  the  representatives  of  the 
German  cause. 

The  German  people  will  only  be  able  to  atone  for 
the  grievous  sins  committed- against  its  own  present 
and  future,  against  that  of  Europe  and  all  mankind, 
when  It  Is  represented  by  other  men  with  a  different 
type  of  mind.  To  tell  the  truth,  it  is  only  just  that 
Its  reputation  throughout  the  entire  world  should  be 
as  bad  as  it  is.  The  triumph  of  Its  methods — the 
military  and  political  methods  by  which  It  has  con- 
ducted the  war  up  till  now — would  mean  the  defeat 
of  the  highest  Ideas  and  hopes  of  humanity.  We 
have  only  to  picture  to  ourselves  a  nation  exhausted, 
demoralised,  or  sick  of  violence  consenting  to  make 
peace  with  a  Government  which  has  waged  such  a 
war  in  order  to  reahse  how  gloomy  and  uncertain 
In  that  case  would  remain  the  path  and  prospects  of 
mankind. 

As  a  man  and  as  a  German,  who  desires  nothing 
but  the  welfare  of  the  sorely  tried  and  deceived  Ger- 
man people,  I  turn  my  back  for  good  and  all  on 
the  present  representatives  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment. And  my  one  desire  Is  that  all  Independent 
men  should  do  the  same  and  that  many  Germans 
may  understand  and  act.  Since  any  appeal  to  Ger- 
man public  opinion  Is  Impossible  for  me  at  present, 
I  have  considered  It  to  be  my  strict  duty  to  Inform 
your  Excellency  of  my  point  of  view. 

W.    MiJHLON. 


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